Indoor tanners follow moms' lead

Schaumburg, Ill. - A large proportion of Caucasian teenage girls and young women who use tanning beds also have mothers who tan indoors, a new survey finds.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), tanning bed users were more than twice as likely to have a family member who also tans indoors (65 percent) compared to their non-tanning peers (28 percent). Indoor tanners were four times as likely (42 percent) to report that their mothers use tanning beds compared to non-indoor tanners (10 percent).

The survey also found that the vast majority of indoor tanners (94 percent) reported that their parents did know that they were using or had used a tanning bed.

Respondents who had used tanning beds in the previous year were nearly twice as likely to indicate feeling peer pressure to be tanned (49 percent) compared to non-tanning bed users (28 percent). The vast majority of indoor tanners (96 percent) also reported having friends who tan either indoors or outdoors.

More than 3,800 white, non-Hispanic females ages 14 to 22 responded to a nationwide online survey to determine their tanning knowledge, attitudes and behavior, according to the AAD. The survey was conducted from Dec. 28, 2010, to Jan. 11, 2011.